Zone Leader Council

We had a great Zone Leader Council April 28th here in the Mission Office. We have 6 Zones and all but 2 Zones have 2 Zone Leaders. Starting from l-r in the front. Elders Matthews and Oldroyd. 2nd Row: Elders Sweeten (Assistant), Klinefelter, Jennings, Sister Smedley, Elders Anderson and Cox (assistant), 3rd row: Elders Steven, Ross, Allred, President Smedley, Morrell (behind Scott), and Elder Fisher. These are very good leaders and we love working with them.

On the way Home from the Wedding

We stopped to take a picture of this beautiful orange flowered tree and soon drove into the Wat behind the tree. There were children playing in the wat and when they saw us they ran and hid. When we left they came out. They probably thought we were bad people looking to take children or something, when really all we wanted to see was the inside of the yard of the Wat.


The children were hiding in this Wat. Perhaps it is a home of a Buddhist Monk. Sometimes, they take in children and raise them if the parents bring them there for help.

There were many cattle all along the road and. . .


also many water buffalo. These had been in the water because they were all muddy.

If you make this picture bigger, off to the back right there is a baby cow nursing.

We were almost back in Phnom Penh when we saw this beautiful Cambodian sunset. I love it when I see them because in the city there are too many buildings around the mission home that block the view of a sunset.

Wedding in Romlong

Buntea (I think that's the right name) is from the Phnom Penh 12th Branch. He has been on a mission, but wasn't as active in the Church. Now he is going well and to all the activities. Whenever we see him, he comes and sits by us and he really likes Scott. He wanted us to come in the worst way to his wedding, but Scott told him he didn't think we could come and gave him a wedding gift of cash. That's what you give here. Anyway, it is 2 1/2 hours from Phnom Penh. When we arrived he about hugged Scott and just kept saying, I didn't think you were coming. Thanks so much for coming. He kept coming up to all of us (Fairchilds, Nelsons, and Housers) and thanking all of us for coming. As you can see, he loves the Nelsons and was greeting them as they got out of the van.


The young man married the daughter of the Kampong Thom Branch President. She isn't a member, but has promised him that she will come to church in Phnom Penh with him. They have rented a one room apartment. Her parents are on either side of them and the sisters of the Mom are there also. Everyone greets you as you go in to the festivities.


The Bride and Groom.


These little children were standing around waiting for us to finish drinks so they could collect the cans. One of them was so thirsty that he grabbed a glass of water when the person stood up. As soon as we all stood up to go, they grabbed all the left over food and put it in bags to take home and eat. In all our time here, I have never seen such hungry children. We were happy that they could eat what we didn't want.

Farewell to Elder Miles

Monday morning Elder Miles flew out for SLC, Utah. One of the first things he is going to do after greeting family is go to Cafe Rio and get a pulled pork burrito or something with pulled pork in it. He used to work there. Great missionary and he will do well in school and work, whatever he does!

New Missionaries

On Thursday, April 22, 2010, we received 8 new missionaries from the MTC Provo. We also had 2 new missionaries from here in Cambodia. They will start their missions now and then go to the MTC Manila Phillipines with 3-4 other Cambodians in June. They have had their calls for 3 months and were ready to come. The above group from L-R. Elder Son (came in on a Transfer from Vietnam at the same time this group arrived), Sister Nouer (the Cambodian), Sister Hildenbrand, Sister and President Smedley, Elders Seang, Cope, and Cox (Assistant). Back Row L-R Elder Thinh (here in transfer from Vietnam), Elders Conway, Baird, Christian, Ballard, Elder (yes, Elder Elder), and Elder Sweeten (new Assistant replacing Elder Miles). This is a great group of missionaires. Happy and positive.

This is the new Cambodian Elder. Elder Mai. He is 24 and has already baptized his Mother, has been a branch missionary and his current branch president is someone he baptized. So he will just carry on even more from his pre-missionary work!

Elder Hurwitz took this picture for me. This is on Friday after Training the new companions came in to pick up the new missionaries which also meant a BIG transfer. Elder Hurwitz was not standing on a chair. He is 6' 10", and so all I did was hand him the camera and now you have his viewpoint on things, plus you can see many of the missionaries.

This always requires LOTS of luggage.

The sisters before they took off to their new areas. Me, Sisters Sok, Pin, Askerlund, Hildenbrand, Essma, Wu, and Noeur. One of these days, I"ll get rid of the roll I have!

Finishing Missionaries

We have two missionaries finishing. They came in on Friday and had their Final interviews. Elders Ormsby and Miles. Both are excellent missionaries and have contributed much to the work here and the building of the Church in Cambodia. Elder Ormsby at one time was one of our Office Elders and Elder Miles is finishing as one of Scott's assistants. Elder Ormsby's parents came to the mission home to meet him and also have dinner and a final devotional with us. This is the sweet Reunion between Elder Ormsby and his Mother and also both parents



They are so thrilled to see him and so proud.

Walking the Red Carpet. Elder Ormsby

Elder Miles

The final dinner. All the missionaries love Sarat's Lasagne. Sarat is the part time housekeeper/cook here in the mission home. So she fixed this great meal and stayed to help me with the clean up.

After the devotional we met for one last picture with us.
We certainly will miss them, but wish them the best in the future.

Happy 60th Birthday to President Smedley/ A Baptism

We invited the office staff and some new Cambodian missionaries to join us along with 2 Senior Couple for cake and ice-cream. So it was a nice crowd of 14 people. The frosting turned out okay even though I forgot and put 1/2 the brown sugar it should have had. I should have licked the side of the cake pan and then you wouldn't see the extra frosting!

Sister Nouer (say New-a with a smile and your teeth together.) is a new Cambodian missionary. She and another Elder are starting out their missions without going to the MTC. They go in June with 2-3 other missionaries who just received their calls. These two had their calls for 3 months already and so Scott had them start now. I am Sister Nouer's companion until the new missionaries from the MTC come in tomorrow. We have 8 new missionaries coming in. Sister Nouer came into my office to tell me Good Night. There is one American sister coming in and they will be companions for a day. Sister Nouer is so willing to do what she needs to do. I went through her clothes and she had some short skirts and denim pants about 3 pair and 2 pair of high heels to do missionary work in. She was still left with 4 useable skirts. Tomorrow morning we will go next door to a store and see if they have any long enough skirts. I think she will have to wait until she goes up to her area. But she had a good attitude about getting rid of unuseable items. High heels are not good biking shoes or walking shoes. I mean, these were 4 inch heels! Her family will bring her in 2 pair of other serviceable shoes tomorrow morning.

We visited a branch that had a baptism after. Janet, on the left is an investigator from China. She speaks no Cambodian. She just dropped in after work because she couldn't go to Sacrament meeting in the International Branch. She works 7 days a week and 12 hour days with 2 days off a month! She is looking for different work. She had never seen a baptism, so we invited her to come. She loved it, but was surprised that women couldn't baptize or hold any priesthood. The other sister is a returned missionary, Sister Mouk, who did some translating for the talks for Janet and me.

These are two of the young men baptized that I talked about in one of my weekly letters. The Elders felt impressed to stop and talk to two young men, and ended up giving 13 other people pamphlets and got many return appointments. The young man in the white shirt and tie on the right is one of those young men. The other with the white shirt also got baptized, but I don't know if he was one of that other crowd. The missionaries from L-R: Elders: Leng, Hermann, and Stevens.